View full sizeThomas Boyd/The OregonianPhil Knight says the unbeaten University of Oregon football team has been a huge boost to him personally, as well as to the university and the state of Oregon. The photograph behind him is a panorama of last year's Rose Bowl, featuring the Ducks and the Ohio State Buckeyes.

As a 13-year-old Boy Scout, Phil Knight worked as an usher at Portland's Multnomah Stadium -- now known as PGE Park -- and watched his first University of Oregon football game.

The Ducks lost, 63-0, to the University of Washington.

Knight's destiny was not deterred, in part, because his father, UO alum William H. Knight, pointed the Cleveland High School track star toward the university. And legendary track coach Bill Bowerman provided the magnetic pull.

Knight has been a familiar sight at Ducks games since the mid-1990s. But before then, he mostly was too busy running Nike Inc., the athletic shoe and apparel company he and Bowerman co-founded nearly 40 years ago. Business came first.

It still does. But for the last 15 years, Knight, with a personal fortune estimated near $11 billion, has offered his attention, support and Midas touch to the Ducks.

One might wonder if he is surprised by the Ducks' rapid ascension to a national title game.

"We're exactly on plan," he said with a smile during a conversation Friday, a day before the Ducks' clinching victory over the Oregon State Beavers.

The interview, conducted in the Mia Hamm Building on the Nike campus near Beaverton, focused on the UO football team's success. The questions and answers have been edited for clarity and brevity:

Q: What does the success of the Ducks football team this year mean to you?

A: It's been a blast. It's been a dream season and I can't imagine a football season being more fun. And it's been very gratifying. We've watched the team improve over 15 years, so all of those things roll into this football season.

Q: Could the Ducks have been playing as well as they have without the facilities that you have helped build?

A: Success has a thousand fathers and I think I'm one of many. I think I've helped a lot, but the last three coaches, the financial contributors that have been in there, the athletic directors, the two presidents of the university -- it's all in there.

"When I arrived ... the head coach's office was the size of a broom closet."

-- Rich Brooks, Ducks football coach, 1977-94

"He's an Oregonian. He's proud he's an Oregonian."

-- Pat Kilkenny, University of Oregon athletic director, 2007-09

Q: What would Bowerman have to say about the Ducks' success? (Bowerman, who also played football at Oregon, died in 1999 at age 88.)

A: I think he'd enjoy it about as much as I am.

Q: What would he think of today's athletic facilities?

A: He thought, when I was running, that the athletes were too soft ... that the ultimate track spike, because of the weight, would be a nail through the foot, but the kids were too pampered to put up with that. So, I would think he'd think (today's) facilities were much too grand for these kids -- but he'd still enjoy this ride.

Q: After the Ducks lost to Colorado in the Cotton Bowl on Jan. 1, 1996, you asked then-football coach Mike Bellotti, "What do we need to go to the next level?" He said an indoor practice facility and you said, "Let's go get one." What brought you to that point?

A: It was a spur of the moment thing, it wasn't something that I had planned. Normally in the fall I used to go to Asia. That was always a time to visit the (Nike) factories, and our main financing came out of Japan, so I'd make that run and it conflicted a lot with the football season. So I really wasn't a season ticket holder until '93, I think, and I got caught up (in 1994) in the Rose Bowl year and then the following year, when they were not expected to be quite as good and they ended up second in the conference, and they went to the Cotton Bowl. So I kind of got caught up in the whole thing and was disappointed in the loss. And I found myself asking that question without really having thought about it before. So now, here we are.

Q: What was the football team like when you were at UO? Were they competitive?

A: They were actually pretty good. Those were in the early (Coach Len) Casanova years and in my junior year they went to the (1958) Rose Bowl. And so I went down there as a 19-year-old to see Oregon play Ohio State. And (top-ranked) Ohio State was a huge favorite. (Oregon lost 10-7.) It was a great game and a great experience. I was a Fiji (Phi Gamma Delta fraternity at Oregon). I stayed at the Fiji house at Occidental College.

Q: Was it difficult to get a ticket in those days?

A: No, the students got high priority, so we could get a ticket pretty easy.

Q: Have you heard it's almost impossible this year for students to get tickets to regular season Duck games?

A: No, they have that student section. I don't know how many they seat. But I know they have some lottery or something or other like that. Obviously there's much greater demand this year. I haven't heard a lot of complaints about that.

Q: Will the Beavers play in the Rose Bowl in your lifetime?

A: Oh, I think there's a very good chance of that. I think they have an outstanding coach and he's really built that program up. There's actually a story in USA Today about both universities, about the success of their football teams over the last 10 years. And you know, the Beavers, they've lost five games this year but four of them were close. If they win those close games they could go to the Rose Bowl this year, and Oregon would go to the national championship game. That's a perfect year.

Q: You have contributed millions to the University of Oregon. Now, what are you going to do to keep Chip Kelly around?

A: Yeah, he's shown some pretty good potential. (pause) We'll just do what we can to make it the best coaching job in the world.

Q: How did Oregon target Kelly, then an assistant coach at the University of New Hampshire, as the next Oregon football coach?

A: Mike Bellotti figured that out. And it's a little bit of a long story. But Bellotti lost to Utah (in 2005). (Then-Utah head coach) Urban Meyer was running the spread (offense) -- one of the early adopters of the spread. In fact, some people credit him with being the inventor. Bellotti, when he saw that system, said, "We could use some of that. Literally, maybe within a year or two later, he decided to put in a spread. ... He sent (offensive coordinator Gary Crowton) down to work with Urban Meyer. So he went down there and the offensive coordinator for Florida was Dan Mullen, who's now the head coach of Mississippi State -- I told you this was a long story. Anyway, (Mullen's) from New Hampshire. And he says, "The guy who really knows this stuff is Chip Kelly up at the University of New Hampshire." So Crowton, when he came back he had some rough edges to the spread and he started calling Chip Kelly on Sundays saying, "This came up and I didn't quite know what to do with it." And Chip always had an answer. So, when LSU came and picked up Crowton, Bellotti knew he'd been talking to Chip Kelly, so he went to get Chip Kelly.

Q: True or not. There's a headset in your suite at Autzen so you can listen to the play calling.

A: If it was true I couldn't say, huh?

Q: Why, is it illegal?

A: No. I just wouldn't want to talk about it ... if it was true.

Q: What's next to elevate the status of the University of Oregon?

A: I think the athletic department is really the best marketing tool that the University of Oregon has. I think the university's athletic department has really been upgraded over the last several years. You look at this year and the university has a chance to be national champions in football, women's track and field, in baseball and in golf. That's never happened, ever. To continue that is something you'd like to do and I know the president of the university (Richard Lariviere) is trying to upgrade the whole university. In another part of your paper we're talking about his battles with the Legislature to do that. So, I'm hopeful that's as successful as well.

Q: What conversations have you had with Lariviere about next steps to improve the university?

A: Oh, I talk to him on a regular basis. I spoke with him a couple of days ago. He was mostly talking about -- his view is the next step to upgrade the academic side of the university is to get the Legislature to go along with his plan, which is a little bit complicated, but it's to take a step -- I hate to use the word because it's an oversimplification -- but to take a step toward becoming more of a private university. I think the state provides about 7 percent of the funding now, so basically it is a private university that's hamstrung by public policy.

Q: What kinds of things could he be able to do if that plan is implemented?

A: Well, the simplest one is that he can set his own tuition. He's hamstrung in the sense he can't charge more tuition than the Legislature will let him do for in-state kids. So he loses money on every state kid that enrolls in the University of Oregon and he makes money on every kid that comes from out of state. So, increasingly, it's become the University of California at Eugene. That's the result of the current Legislature's policies.

Q: Did Lariviere consult with you before he made his pitch before legislators in October for funding the university with $800 million in state-issued bonds?

A: He told me he was going to do it. I didn't have much say.

Q: The football team's success has to help a whole lot of things.

A: I think we're both in agreement that will help the whole university. It helps in fund raising, it helps the number of people who request enrollment every year -- it lifts the university. I do believe that and I think he believes that as well.

Q: Will the football team's success help in the Legislature as well?

A: That is hard for me (pause) I'm the last person you should ask that. I'm the one who wrote the op-ed piece in your newspaper which was going to help swing the vote on taxes here. And polls went down, you know, 50 percent worst after my op-ed piece. I can't figure those political people out.

Q: The state of Oregon just had a close gubernatorial election and Legislature is about evenly divided between Republicans and Democrats. Has it occurred to you that this Ducks football team is one thing most people in the state can agree on?

A: Sure. When I contribute to University of Oregon athletics, there's a whole bunch of reasons that go into that. Obviously, any amount of money I have comes from two sources: Stanford business school and Oregon athletic fields. And so, those are the two main charities that I've done. But also, I have webs between my toes. I'm an Oregonian. I thought if the University of Oregon football or track team can be upgraded to a point, it can remind people in this state that Oregon just doesn't have to be that soccer field between California and Washington. It can win.

View full sizeThomas Boyd/The OregonianPhil Knight looks out a fourth-floor window in the Mia Hamm Building on the Nike campus near Beaverton. Knight reserved eight hotel rooms in or near Glendale, Ariz., after the Ducks beat USC on Oct. 30, anticipating his alma mater might make it to the national championship game. Sunday, the Ducks officially did just that.

Q: At the Sept. 20 annual shareholders meeting at Nike headquarters near Beaverton, a shareholder asked about the prospects for U of O's football team. You talked about the Ducks, but you also talked about the success at Oregon State and University of Washington. You're an Oregon guy but it seemed from that answer you were saying you're a Northwest guy, too.

A: Absolutely. No question. They all got Douglas fir. I mean, football's a game. It's not war. I think the rivalries are fun. And personally I like to beat the Huskies, I like to beat the Beavers. But when I wear my Nike hat I'm very, very proud that all four Northwest schools -- Washington, Washington State, Oregon State and Oregon -- are all Nike schools. We're proud to be associated with them and I root for the Beavers 11 out of 12 times a year

Q: When did you know you were going to attend the University of Oregon?

A: My father went to the University of Oregon. So when he was explaining sports to me he said Oregon were the good guys. So I grew up that way. And when I went to (Cleveland) high school I ran track and then sort of the ultimate track destination for anybody in the Pacific Northwest was Bill Bowerman and the University of Oregon. So those two things kind of meshed. And I was kind of a liberal arts major more than anything, so they all came together and Oregon was the obvious choice.

Q: Before the University of Washington's 53-16 loss to the Ducks this season, Washington athletic director Scott Woodward told KJR radio's Dave "Softy" Mahler that U of O was an "embarrassment" as an academic institution. What was your reaction to those remarks?

A: I thought they were funny. And in a strange way it was a compliment to the University (of Oregon) in my view. He was frustrated and he blurted that out and I found great humor in that. Mahler asked him, "What have you learned when you see all these great facilities at the University of Oregon?" I think what (Mahler) was fishing for was (an answer saying) "We got to upgrade our facilities," something along those lines. But, out of frustration, (Woodward) says, "Well, they're not as good as us academically, by a long ways," or something to that effect. And, again, I took that as a compliment. (Washington) is a very good school. But Oregon is pretty good academically as well.

Q: What does this football season mean to you, to the state, to the university?